UK Picks Up Russia BoogeyBear Scare in Parliametary Hearing

UK Picks Up US Anti-Russia Narrative In Bid to Control Social Media, Invalidate Brexit

The notion of using the fear of the Russians to justify government intrusion into social media has spread across the pond, from the US into the UK. A parliamentary committee in the UK is demanding that Twitter turn over “Russian-Related” accounts to the UK government. This call comes on the heels of the shameful US Senate Hearings on Social Media that centered around a consideration of regulating social media.

Here is my take on that whole fiasco:

Damian Collins, the chairperson of this parliamentary committee, wrote Twitter’s chief Executive Officer, Jack Dorsey, requesting the list of “Russian-Related” accounts. The MP’s are using the umbrella of “Fake News” to justify scrutinizing social media in general, while demanding personal information from the social media giant.

It should be noted that the MPs are NOT looking into their own MSM (State-run and state-friendly media), with their notorious spreading of “fake news” in the name of muh party or muh government happening since they started producing “news.”

Their target is really on social media in general and alternative media, especially the alternative media that contradicts their accepted government party line. So relax BBC, relax Skye News, you’re safe from the scrutiny of MPs looking into “Fake News.”

What these MPs are hoping to do is to somehow implicate Russia in the catastrophic loss these well-heeled, well-mannered, well-owned operatives suffered in the June 8, 2016 Brexit Referendum. In the same way that the well-heeled, well-mannered (though not so much anymore), well-owned operatives were shocked when upstart Donald Trump won in the November 2016 election, so too are these owned trolls still shocked that the ‘people’ did not choose what they had predestined they would choose (in this case, staying in the EU).

And now, like their American counterparts, the UK operatives have decided to blame Russia, so blame Russia they will. And in blaming Russia they hope to delegitimize the election results that they worked so hard to avoid, as well as to employ the great Russian boogeybear to convince the British people that further intrusion into their private lives is a necessary evil, because allowing the Russian boogeybear to infiltrate their lives is far worse than allowing the British government to infiltrate their lives even more than they already are.

The co-chair of this sham of a committee, born as it is from ‘fake news,’ (that the Russians are coming), Damien Collins, said, “It has subsequently emerged that some of these accounts were also posting content that relates to the politics of the United Kingdom. Any interference by foreign actors in the democratic process of the United Kingdom is clearly a serious matter.

I would therefore ask that Twitter provides to the committee a list of accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency and any other Russian linked accounts that it has removed and examples of any posts from these accounts that are linked to the United Kingdom.”

Interestingly, the Conservative Party has already been pushing for more government regulations of social media, and the internet as a whole. Fortune covered this back in May of this year, right before the election that saw Teresa May win re-election as PM, but with a weaker coalition: The Conservative platform issued on Thursday emphasizes the need for more online protections against abuse, more restrictions on pornographic or violent images, and a greater role for social networks in controlling the spread of extremist ideologies online.

Rather than shout “The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming,” the British people should be shouting “Our own government is coming, our own government is coming,” which is what the American people should be shouting as well.

Paul Gordon is the publisher and editor of iState.TV. He has published and edited newspapers, poetry magazines and online weekly magazines.
He is the director of Social Cognito, an SEO/Web Marketing Company. You can reach Paul at pg@istate.tv